I started writing a blog about Italy, but then forgot that I had gone to London again between the Lake District and Italy! Maybe I didn't remember it because I still haven't put my pictures from it on Facebook. Oops- I knew I was forgetting something. Maybe I'll do that tonight.
Anyway, we went to London because of a field trip for British Studies- we went to go see the National Gallery, National Portrait Gallery, and St. Paul's Cathedral, all of which were really cool. In the National Gallery, we saw all the originals of the paintings we've seen on PowerPoints in class: like Charles I, Mr. and Mrs. Andrews (which was on our last exam), Experiment on a Bird in an Air Pump (which I wanted to be on our last exam). It was really neat to be seeing the originals. In the National Portrait Gallery, we saw portraits of the Queens and Kings that we saw in class, mostly of Elizabeth I, Henry VIII, and Victoria I would say... they seem to have a lot of portraits. Also in the National Portrait Gallery is the only sketch of Jane Austen done while she was alive. Sooooo cool! In St. Paul's (aside from being absolutely beautiful) all kinds of famous war heroes that we have been learning about in class are buried in it, so that was fun. AND to make things better I had Dr. Bujak for the tour, and he is hilarious and really knows what he is talking about.
After the field trip, Amber, Melody, Megan, and I (and a bunch of other people) all stayed in London for the weekend. We grabbed our luggage off the bus and started the trek towards our hostel. Ooh, Hyde Park Hostel, how you sucked. It was seriously a dump- very shady. Our roof leaked, I was pretty sure a pigeon was about to fly through our window one night, it smelled bad, the toilet was missing parts, etc. It was so disgusting that I refused to take a shower (naturally by the time I got back to the manor I was nasty, so that was the first thing I did). We even discovered (thankfully on the day we were leaving) a can of bug killer in our room. So, if you're ever in London, DO NOT EVER stay in Hyde Park Hostel. It's not even in a good area of town- NOTHING is anywhere NEAR Hyde Park... except Hyde Park. If you want to go to the park, then you should probably stay near it- just not in Hyde Park Hostel. NEVER.
Aside from the crappy hostel (which we were conveniently NEVER in), London was as fantastic as ever (though also as rainy as ever). Friday night Melody, Amber, and I went to see the Lion King, and it was AMAZING. We waited outside the stage door and met the guy that played Simba, the girl that played Nala, they guys that played Timon and Zazu. Simba was super nice- he was asking us where we were from, what we were doing in London, where we were sitting during the show, how we liked it, etc. He was actually taking the time to talk to us, which we all really appreciated. So I would definitely recommend seeing the Lion King.
Saturday we mostly wandered around and went shopping. Melody went back to school on the bus that night (thus escaping the nasty hostel) and so Megan, Amber, and I walked around London (ok... so we took the tube around London. Hey- it was raining). We did lots of tacky souvenir shopping, and a lot of Primark shopping as well. London Primark is a must. Primark is the BEST STORE EVER. Seriously, I have restocked my entire spring wardrobe for about $30- it is dirt cheap and really cute stuff. Then we went down to Millenium Bridge (the bridge used in the filming of the 6th Harry Potter movie) and took pictures there, walked over to Shakespeare's Globe Theater, and then had dinner. On the way to the bridge we ran across some men selling roasted peanuts, so naturally we bought some of those (and they were delicious).While we were eating dinner we watched the England vs. France rugby match on tv with lots of Londoners, and I eavesdropped on a Spanish conversation happening behind me. It was magical.
Sunday Amber, Melody, Audrey, and I went to Hillsong United's church, and it was awesome. The worship was great (as expected) and the message was as well. The speaker was actually from America (Texas) so that was an interesting experience. It seriously was great though- I would go back anytime.
That's basically all we did. Amber and I definitely showered as soon as we got back.